


The harder the battle, the harder I'll fight (I've come too far to quit)

by MYuzuki



Series: No matter what’s in front of me (I’ll keep fighting til I’ve won) [14]
Category: Final Fantasy XV, Kingsglaive
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Time Travel Fix-It, this is the boss battle drabble I mentioned before
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:15:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26360227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MYuzuki/pseuds/MYuzuki
Summary: Nyx spends a week trying to pick up the pieces in the wake of Titus Drautos's arrest, and despite the nightmares that still plague him and the low-level hum of mystical power that he doesn't know what to do with he thinks he's doing a good job, all things considered.Then Glauca breaks out of prison.
Relationships: Titus Drautos | Glauca & Nyx Ulric
Series: No matter what’s in front of me (I’ll keep fighting til I’ve won) [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897525
Comments: 12
Kudos: 157





	The harder the battle, the harder I'll fight (I've come too far to quit)

**The harder the battle, the harder I'll fight (I've come too far to quit)**

* * *

Nyx spends a week trying to pick up the pieces in the wake of Titus Drautos's arrest, and despite the nightmares that still plague him and the low-level hum of mystical power that he doesn't know what to do with he thinks he's doing a good job, all things considered.

He's enlisted help from Libertus, Crowe, and Pelna and together they've been whipping the Kingsglaive as a whole back into shape, seeing to the training of the new recruits even as they speak with the more seasoned members to figure out who else might have been conspiring with Glauca.

Nyx spends countless hours sitting in one of the briefing rooms with his friends, reading through stacks of statements and field reports and personnel files and trying not to remember the looks on the faces of the Glaives he'd had to kill for the greater good, trying not remember the twisted tangle of betrayal and sorrow that had been in his chest as his comrades had turned on him.

It's not a great way to spend almost every waking moment of every single day, but on the whole it's better than letting his memories of the time-that-wasn't swallow him whole so he throws himself into it headfirst and without hesitation, surfacing only to eat and sleep and occasionally train when the need to let off some steam grows too powerful to ignore.

Then Glauca breaks out of prison.

Nyx is taking a break in the Glaive mess hall when he receives word of it; Pelna comes hurtling into the room, all but slamming into Nyx's table when he skids to a halt.

"Gl-glauca," he gasps out, face flushed with exertion and eyes wide with alarm. "Br-break out. Got help from traitors. Try-trying to escape Insomnia-"

Nyx is on his feet and out of the room before Pelna can finish his sentence, fury swirling in his chest along with the sharp burn of impossible magic as he summons his kukris and races out of headquarters.

He spots Glauca's escape path through the city without much trouble, helped by the fact that the bastard is leaving a trail of destruction in his wake as he heads for the border of Insomnia.

Nyx warps himself through the city, a firestorm in his heart as lightning sparks along the backs of his hands and down the edges of his blades. As he hop-scotches his way through the city with magic, he spots various members of the Crownsguard who are also in pursuit of Glauca but doesn't waste time trying to stop and confer with them. He knows better than anyone how much devastation Niflheim's most powerful soldier can cause; there's no time to waste.

He refuses to let Drautos turn Insomnia into a smoldering ruin again, doesn't want to even _think_ about what might happen if he's allowed to escape and return to Niflheim.

After approximately two minutes and seventeen seconds of chasing, he finally catches sight of Glauca himself, terrorizing innocents on a freeway overpass as he tries to commandeer a vehicle for faster transportation.

Nyx flings a kukri with all his might, warping to snatch it out of the air just as it finishes crossing the distance to skim past Glauca.

Glauca tries to dodge out of the way, but Nyx draws on the rage and determination coursing through him and lashes out with a roundhouse kick faster than his enemy can react; it doesn't do much damage through the bastard's armor, but it does get him stagger slightly, doubling over with a curse.

Nyx doesn't give Drautos a chance to recover, hurling a fistful of lightning into his face is a way that echoes a similar lightning blast from a future that no longer exists.

(The memory of that moment from _before_ tries to crowd into Nyx's mind, hammering him with thoughts of the deal he'd made and the power it had granted him, the power to fight for the sake of the future and the hope that someday things could be better.

_You guys drive a hard bargain_ , he'd said, the last words he'd said to the Lucii after what had perhaps been the most surreal conversation of his life. _Where do I sign?_

And then the magic he'd lost with Regis's death had come rushing back, only ten times stronger, a _hundred_ times stronger because it was _his,_ undiluted and almost primal in its power.

He'd thrown up the most powerful protective barrier he'd ever conjured with barely a thought, stopping Glauca's sword with ease and then sending the bastard tumbling away with a well-placed lightning bolt that had crackled through the air.

_I could get used to this_ , he'd said, even as he'd returned the ring to Lunafreya and known that he was living his last day, taking his last breaths.)

The echoes of those moments clamor for Nyx's attention but he forces it all away, forcing himself to stay in the current moment because he's fighting Glauca to the death _again_ and he needs to _focus_.

He throws a kukri again, warping and tackling into Glauca as he tries to get to his feet after the lightning strike; they go slamming into the barrier separating the opposing lanes of traffic, the concrete shattering and crumbling from the impact as they go hurtling across the asphalt.

Glauca manages to extricate himself after a few seconds, elbowing Nyx hard in the side, the sharp edges of his armor digging into Nyx's ribs hard enough to bruise, before snatching at the hood of Nyx's uniform and flinging him away.

Nyx goes tumbling but uses the momentum of the toss to somersault back to his feet, righting himself and springing back up just in time to parry a blow from Glauca's sword that otherwise would have cleaved him in two.

"Don't you realize you're fighting a hopeless battle," Drautos growls. "The Empire cannot be defeated."

Nyx snarls, unleashing another torrent of lightning that drives Drautos back, even as his former commander's warped voice stirs of echoes of _before_.

_What can you hope to do_ , he'd said. _One man against an empire_.

"I'm not letting this happen again," Nyx mutters, fierce and ferocious as he charges at Drautos again, aiming his blades at the gaps in the other man's armor.

The rest of their fight is vicious and brutal, just as it had been before, but after exchanging increasingly intense blows and using strategically placed lightning blasts to punch more holes in his enemy's ostentatious armor, Nyx comes to the realization that as similar as the fight is to the one he remembers, it's also substantially different. Not only is the city not being razed to the ground around them, not only are buildings not being torn apart by daemons, but Nyx isn't already battered and worn down from hours of endless fighting, isn't pushing on despite injuries that might have killed a less stubborn man, isn't fighting knowing that it will be his last battle.

He's fighting in top form, or fairly close to it (there's a twinge in his shoulder every now and again, courtesy of the lingering ache from the almost-healed bullet wound, but nothing compared to the hollow-point that had torn through him in that other life) and more than that he's not spontaneously bursting into flames from using his powers too much.

Whatever magic is lingering in his veins from the boost the Lucii had given him in that other time, it seems like the cost is no longer the same.

(Honestly, he's not entirely sure how he feels about that, but figures that as long as he survives this battle he can figure it all out later.)

After what feels like an eternity of back and forth fighting, Nyx finally manages to disarm Glauca, stabbing the man in the crook of an elbow and taking advantage of the general's pained distraction to use his other kukri to twist the massive sword out of Glauca's grasp.

The sword goes clattering away, the metal rasping against the pavement.

Glauca's helmet recedes for a moment, exposing a face that Nyx had once trusted implicitly. A face that's twisted in pain and frustration, a dark vengeful fury in his eyes as he reaches out with his uninjured arm in a way that's almost beseeching. "Nyx, wait-"

Nyx doesn't wait. He warps forward, past Drautos's outstretched arm, and stabs him in the heart.


End file.
